Celebrating Buddy Anderson

0714 Buddy Anderson

Buddy Anderson on the field.

In the fall of 1972, Thompson “Mutt” Reynolds hired a young assistant football coach to help him with the fledgling Vestavia Hills High football program.

Reynolds, who coached the Rebels just that one season before stepping into the role of athletic director, likely never expected to see his name on the school’s football stadium. And that young assistant coach, Dovey Ralph “Buddy” Anderson, said for sure he never thought his name would adorn the school’s playing field.

Nor had he ever dreamed he’d be within reach of one of the greatest feats in Alabama high school history.

Anderson is two wins away from owning the most wins by a high school in this football-crazed state.

He sits a single W behind Waldon Tucker, who went 309-106-3 in his career at Demopolis Academy, Gordo and Fayette County. Anderson, 308-125, has spent his entire coaching career at Vestavia Hills. The Rebels open the season at home against Homewood Aug. 29 and then travel to Oak Mountain on Sept. 5.

Path to winning

How he was led to coach at Vestavia Hills in the first place is an amazing story.

“God called me to be a high school coach. I’ve been faithful to Him and He’s been faithful to me,” Anderson said. He knew the place and date that call came, too — sitting in his dad’s pickup truck on Jan. 12, 1968, in his hometown of Thomasville.

But when he graduated from college after a football career at Samford University, nobody wanted him as an assistant coach.

“I had applied for several jobs in the area, but I kept hitting dead ends,” Anderson recalled. Frustrated and unsure about what he would do, one hot August afternoon he headed to see if financial aid might be available for graduate studies at Samford. He bumped into a former teammate at the financial aid office who suggested he consider contacting Vestavia Hills about a position. The new school’s football program had suffered a tragic blow in the summer of 1971 when a car driven by Reynolds and carrying four assistant coaches was rammed on U.S. 31 by an 18-wheeler whose brakes had failed going down the hill. All three assistants in the back seat were killed.

John Lee Armstrong, the coach who’d signed him at Samford, knew Vestavia Hills Principal Johnny Howell and arranged an interview for Anderson.

Anderson said Reynolds didn’t ask him any football questions. “He asked, ‘Why are you coaching?’ And I said God called me to be a high school coach, on Jan. 12, 1968. He asked me if I loved kids and other things, but nothing about offense or defense or anything football. Coach Reynolds had a way of asking the same question a different way and he got back around to it. ‘Well, Coach, you think you’re going to coach here four or five years and feel like you can make more money doing something else, what do you plan on doing?’

“I said ‘No, sir, God called me to be a coach and I plan on being a coach my whole career.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Then you’re the person I want to hire.’”

Anderson did his student teaching at Vestavia that spring and was hired full time that fall to fill the spot of one of the coaches killed in the car crash. Six years later, he stepped up to the head coaching position and was on his way to induction into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame.

Celebrating a leader and friend

Anderson, also the son of a hall-of-fame coach, doesn’t talk much about himself otherwise. He cites the many players and the outstanding assistant coaches he’s had — many of whom who have been on his staff for years — rather than talk about his own abilities.

His colleagues and competitors say it better than he will.

“Number one, he’s a tremendous man, and number two, he’s a tremendous football coach,” Hoover coach Josh Niblett said. “For a guy to be able to do what he’s done for so long at the same place is just remarkable. I think he’s probably one of the best, if not the best in-game adjustment coaches that I’ve ever coached against. I have a lot of respect for that man, not only what he does on the field but what he does off the field for those kids over there.”

“Coach Anderson is a great example of the impact that one single life can have on this world,” said Mountain Brook coach Chris Yeager. “His influence extends well beyond the Vestavia football program and the sport of football. My father passed away last October the week before we were to play Vestavia. Coach called me the first morning I returned to school. He shared with me about the life and passing of his dad who was a teacher and coach in Thomasville, Alabama. We talked for about an hour, both of us sharing stories and memories about our fathers. It meant the world to me and said volumes about the man that would take the time out of his schedule to try and bring comfort to a fellow coach.”

Cris Bell has only been in the state a couple of seasons, but the Oak Mountain coach knew Anderson before he got to Alabama. “I’ve known Coach Anderson for a few years through going to FCA camps with him at Black Mountain, N.C. When I think of what a high school football coach looks like, I see Coach Anderson. To do what he’s done over the years he’s done it, that says a ton about him as a person. He does it the right way on every level, from the way he runs his program to the schemes he employs on the field. His kids play hard and with a ton of class. The Vestavia community is very, very fortunate to have him as their head football coach. When I got to Oak Mountain, he went out of his way to welcome me into the community of coaches here, and he is certainly one of my favorites, anywhere.”

On Thursday, Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m., there will be a reception held at the old gym at Vestavia Hills High School to honor Anderson. Former players are invited and light food will be served. More details will follow in an upcoming issue.

Anderson will soon be called the winningest coach in Alabama high school football history. He will perhaps appreciate it more for the others involved than for himself. Because ultimately, he just wanted to be called “Coach.” And as a good and faithful servant, he reached that mark a long time ago.